


Lies

by JayceCarter



Series: Kinktober 2017 [7]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Kinktober, Lies, Mistaken Identity, No Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 01:23:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12288261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayceCarter/pseuds/JayceCarter
Summary: Nora has been lying to Danse about who she is, but when she is injured, he discovers the truth.





	Lies

**Author's Note:**

> Kinktober Day 7: Cross-dressing
> 
> Okay, so, I cheated big time for this prompt. I'm sorry. Instead of going the kink direction, this turned into mulan in the Commonwealth. I mean, it's kinktober and there is no kink and no smut. I'm sorry!! I guess every day can't be a winner, haha.
> 
> So, have some fluff for. . . flufftober? 
> 
> OMG, SOMEONE MAKE FLUFFTOBER!

Nora groaned as she pulled her hat down to keep the rain from her eyes. She hated rain, and this new rain? She swore it burned a little when it hit her, though Danse had insisted it wasn’t true.

 

“Can’t we stop for the night?” She kicked a rock down the road, which did little alleviate her annoyance but plenty to hurt her toe.

 

Danse stopped, the hydraulics of his power armor hissing as he turned to face her. “If we did things your way, we would stop every time it rained.”

 

“And we’d be happier for it. Me from not getting soaked and you from not having to listen to me complain.”

 

“Fine. Let’s clear out that building on the hill. We’ll have enough line of sight for good defense. Tomorrow, we will not stop.”

 

“Unless it rains.”

 

“Not even then.”

 

Nora laughed as she followed him up the hill.

 

She’d never have expected to like the Paladin, not after that first mission, when he’d seemed like the normal, stick-up-his-ass rule follower she typically loathed. However, as time went on, she realized there was more there.

 

He was strict because he cared, a trait she hadn’t seen in many people in the Wasteland. Gone were the people who gave a damn about anyone else, and that’s what she’d become.

 

By the time she met Danse, she’d already spent months crawling around the Commonwealth with MacCready at her side, falling into all his bad habits. They’d steal, demand high caps for jobs, anything they could to make a difference in their position.

 

She’d learned who you needed to be in the wasteland and she’d taken to it.

 

Then she’d met Danse and she’d thought, maybe there was more out there. Maybe she could be more. Maybe the old world didn't have to be gone entirely. 

 

And while she wanted to pretend it had nothing at all to do with the way he looked out of that power armor, she’d be a fool to say that. She’d spent plenty of time sitting back and watching him as he worked out, as he performed duties. That man was better looking than any man had a right to be, and it was all the worse because he had no idea. He didn't preen, didn't flex, and yet every time he lifted something the movement of his back muscles entranced her. 

 

Not that he looked at her the same. In fact, he had no idea she was even a female. She’d worked hard to make it that way, shaving her hair off, wearing clothing that didn’t show off her waist or hips. Thankfully, she’d been flat as asphalt her entire life, so a tight undershirt was enough to prevent any slight jiggling that could occur and out her true identity. She washed away from anyone, was careful to never strip down in any company. 

 

In fact, she’d almost been insulted by how easily everyone believed it. Only Codsworth knew the truth, but he kept it well hidden.

 

It was safer, though. Nora had seen enough of the treatment of women to know being a man was easier. She’d heard stories from the west about the Legion keeping women as slaves, and the few women she’d met hadn’t seemed to fair much better. Even as she'd found some women who had done well in this world, she couldn't know she'd be one of them.

 

No, Nora had shit to do, and men looking at her like one of their made things so much easier.

 

They cleared the house with ease and set up defenses. Nothing major, though Nora did get the turret already on the roof line to work, again.

 

Danse made a fire and set up the sleeping bags beside it while Nora did one last check of the perimeter.

 

They sat down, and Nora pulled her hat off, setting it on a rock beside the fire to dry. Nora had changed into sweats and a shirt to give her brotherhood jumpsuit time to dry, but Danse hadn’t needed to. His power armor had kept the rain from soaking his clothing.

 

Nora stuck her feet out toward the fire to try and warm them. “I want roasted radroach for dinner.”

 

“We have cram. You can warm it over the fire and pretend it is anything you want.” Danse handed her an open can, seated just beside her, close enough she could feel the warm from his arm.

 

He enjoyed teasing her about her height, which wasn’t so short for a female, but compared to him, especially in his power armor, made quite the impact.

 

Nora took a drink of her beer to wash down the cram. She’d finished off two other beers while checking the perimeter, and the nice warmth of it had her relaxing.

 

“You shouldn’t drink, soldier.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You hate anything remotely fun.”

 

He sighed, taking another bite of his own food. “It is not that I hate fun, I just don’t like the idea of being incapacitated while in the open like this. What if raiders decided to attack tonight?”

 

Nora bumped against his arm. “Then I guess I’d have to trust that one big, strong Paladin would have to save me.” She lifted her face to bat her eyelashes at him.

 

Danse stiffened beside her, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “Well, of course, I would do what I could. . .”

 

Nora laughed, curling and stretching her toes to try and warm between them.

 

Cold feet was something she hated about the new world. Such a small thing in the big picture, and yet one she noticed constantly. In her old life, she always had extra socks. She’d never dare wear wet socks, and if her feet became chilled? She put on socks or shoes or hell, she went inside.

 

Nora's toes were always cold, the water of the wasteland soaking into her boots and into her body until her teeth threatened to chatter.

 

“Do you think Arthur’s a virgin?”

 

“ _Elder Maxson’s_  sexual experience isn’t a topic for discussion.”

 

“It should be. He’s only twenty, so I wouldn’t be shocked to find out he was a virgin, but then again, he doesn’t look twenty. Do all the Maxsons go through puberty like a wrecking ball or is he just special?”

 

Danse snatched her beer away. “This subject is highly inappropriate. I think you're done.”

 

Nora leaned against his arm, head on his shoulder. The alcohol had moved through her system enough that she failed to realize just how terrible an idea that was. Right then? She was buzzed and happy and more than a little horny. “Fine. You pick a subject.”

 

His lips pressed together for a moment. “I understand Scribe Haylen has found some promising leads-“

 

“-no work talk. We had a drinking game in the olden days where every time you talked about work, you had to drink.”

 

“Well, seeing as I do not drink and you have drank more than enough already, I think we will pass on playing that.”

 

Nora lifted her head off his shoulder and twisted until she faced him. “Why don’t you ever talk about anything personal?”

 

“Because I don’t have anything personal to talk about. My life before the Brotherhood was just a waste, hardly memorable let alone worth talking about. Since joining up, my life has been Brotherhood.”

 

“You never wanted anything more? I remember being married, having more than just a job in my life. You’ve never thought about that? About wanting. . . more?”

 

His gaze dropped for a moment, fingers picking at a stray thread of his jumpsuit. “Sometimes. I am not what you would consider very good with women, however, and so nothing has happened. I’m okay with that, accept it. My work is enough.”

 

Nora couldn’t help it. Before her brain could catch up and bitchslap her body, she’d all but dove forward, smashing her lips against his in a messy kiss, her hands on his shoulders, her knee in his lap.

 

He didn’t return the kiss, instead grasping her shoulders and setting her out of his lap in a kind, but firm motion.

 

That’s about the moment Nora caught up with her body. What the fuck?

 

“Sorry,” she muttered, scrambling backward. She moved into her sleeping bag, back to him. “Fuck. Sorry, just. . . too much beer.”

 

“Right,” was all he said.

 

#

 

Nora hauled her pack over her shoulder. She met Danse’s gaze, all forced bravado.

 

Had she really kissed him the night before? Great idea, Nora. Even if he were interested in men, there was no better way to out herself than trying to get into his pants.

 

So when she woke up, hung over and frustrated, there were two options. Apologize and address the issue like an adult, or piss around and pretend like nothing happened.

 

She’d picked the second option.

 

Once outside, and halfway down the road, Danse stopped. He turned as he removed his helmet. “Look, Jacobs.”

 

Great. Last name. That didn’t bode well for anything she wanted to hear. Most of the time he called her Nor, which was the name she’d given. Figured people could assume it was short for Norman instead of Nora.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I wanted to address last night.”

 

“Really no need to. Like I said, too much beer, too many nights on the open road. That’s it.”

 

He tucked the helmet beneath one arm but didn’t move, making it clear the conversation wasn’t over on his side at least. “I just need to say something. I don’t want this to affect our friendship, because I do consider you a friend. I am not interested in men in that way. I’m sorry if I implied I might be at any time, it was never my intention. You are a great soldier and I consider you my friend, but that is it. If I were attracted to men, that would be different. We get along well, but, I just am not.”

 

“Right. I get it. No problem.”

 

But, Danse didn’t seem ready to drop it like Nora was trying so hard to do. “I do know quite a few soldiers who would be interested, however. Good men, who I would vouch for.”

 

Great. He was trying to set her up. Yeah, because that was going to make this entire thing less awkward.

 

“Thanks, but I can find my own dates. Really, please, can we just forget about it? I’m not the first person to get drunk and try to make out with anyone breathing close by, I won’t be the last. I will give you back your favorite rifle if you just let us forget about this; I am begging you.”

 

He sighed, gaze dropping. “I will let it go after I say one more thing. As you pointed out last night, I don’t have a life beyond the Brotherhood. I’ve accepted that, but you do not have to. You could find someone, balance both Brotherhood and a relationship, a family. What I am say is, don’t take my example. If I could find someone with whom I had a connection, I think I would like that.”

 

And now Nora felt like shit, too. What with the way his lips tilted down, all that longing in his face.

 

She wanted to walk over and hug him, maybe try to pull him into a gentler kiss, but she had no reason to think it would go any better this morning than it had the night before. Instead, she grasped her rifle and steadied her voice. “Understood, Danse. Thank you. Do you think we should take the road all the way north, or try to go around the city?”

 

He nodded before putting his helmet back on. “Let’s avoid the city, Nor.”

 

#

 

Nora gasped as the mutant hound dug its claws into her side, her baseball bat wedged in its jaw to keep those teeth from tearing her apart.

 

Danse’s rifle continued to fire, telling her he was alive.

 

The super mutants had leapt from inside a building, so fast they hadn’t had time to avoid them or take defensive positions.

 

Nora had picked off a suicider in the group, a lucky shot that took out a few of them, but it had sent the hound straight at her.

 

The hound’s heavy weight crushed her as it scratched at her stomach. She couldn’t remove either hand from the bat or it would have enough leverage to bite down. Instead, she lifted one leg and managed to get a foot around its midsection. She kicked out, causing it to roll off her.

 

Nora reached for her pistol, not bothering to get up, her side hurting enough she doubted she could manage it.

 

The hound leapt at her and she shot.

 

It landed on her, though the teeth didn’t close down, didn’t tear away her flesh. She’d killed it, but wounded as she was, she couldn’t move the damned thing.

 

Worse, she couldn’t breathe.

 

She was going to die under the body of a fucking mutant hound.

 

What a shitty ending to her story.

 

#

 

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Nora snapped when someone prodded at her side.

 

“If you can speak like that, at least I know there wasn’t any serious brain damage.” Danse’s voice was dry, unamused as usual. “At least none different than before.”

 

“When we get back to the Prydwen, we’re going to tell a better story, right? Because I don’t think my reputation will survive everyone knowing I was trapped under a dead dog. . .” She sat up, words trailing off as she realized only a blanket covered her.

 

She’d been stripped, probably to attend to the wounds on her midsection. Even someone as clueless as Danse would notice she wasn't exactly what she'd claimed to be.

 

“Oh,” she said, voice quiet.

 

“That about sums this up, I think. I am not one to push into other's personal matters, but I have to ask, are you a woman who has been lying to me, or do you actually identify as male?”

 

"Woman." Nora pulled her knees up and covered her face with her hands, unwilling to look at Danse, to see whatever was on his face. Did he hate her? Did he pity her? Did it matter? “I’m sorry I lied to you.”

 

He didn’t address the apology. “Why? Why did you lie? You even lied to Cade, because I saw your intake questionnaire and you never mentioned this.”

 

“Because I needed to find Shaun, and I knew that as a woman, that would be more difficult. The last thing I needed was to worry about being underestimated, or having men who wanted to protect me by not letting me do what I needed to do, or worry about getting thrown into chains as a sex slave.”

 

“Those things happen to men, as well.”

 

She dropped her head against her arms, which she’d folded against her knees. “Yeah, but we both know it doesn’t happen as often.”

 

He set a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched away, so he retracted the hand. “I want to help you.”

 

“Are you going to tell everyone?”

 

The bed shifted beneath his weight like he fidgeted. “No. You need to tell Cade, for your own safety. If you were seriously injured and he needed to operate, don’t you think it would be helpful if he at least knew you were female? Because he would need to share that information with Maxson, you should let him know, as well. Further than that? No, I won’t tell anyone else.”

 

Nora tilted her head to look at him, risking a glance. He sat on the bed, legs off to the side, elbows braced on his knees as she leaned forward. His gaze was on the ground, eyebrows drawn together as he did when thinking hard.

 

“Thank you.”

 

He shrugged. “It is your secret to tell or not to tell. It doesn’t change the soldier you are, what you have done, or what you are capable of doing. It doesn’t change anything, really.”

 

Nora tried to hide her flinch. “Nothing?”

 

He twisted her face toward her. “Well, I suppose it make that kiss last night a bit different.”

 

Nora moved over, holding the blanket in place, to sit beside him. “How so?”

 

“Well, I already told you, I’m not attracted to men. However, as it turns out, you aren’t a man, which makes me reconsider my rejection of you.”

 

“You know you make it sounds like a business proposal, right?”

 

He sighed and went to stand, but Nora grabbed his arm.

 

“I was kidding, sorry.”

 

“I already told you, I’m not great with women.”

 

“So you don’t like men and you’re not great with women? No wonder you’re single.”

 

“Laugh it up, Knight. I’m failing to find it as amusing as you are.”

 

Nora bumped his shoulder as she had the night before, but this time he didn’t go rigid. Instead, he leaned toward her, their arms pressed together.

 

Nora let her toes touch the ground, then flinched at the splintered wooden floor. “Where are we? Is this the house we were at last night?”

 

“I carried you back here. The defenses were already set up, so it seemed a safe place.”

 

“And that’s where you stripped me?”

 

His cheeks reddened and he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I didn’t look.”

 

“Then how did you figure out my secret?”

 

He coughed, fidgeting again. “Well, I saw some, in order to assess your injuries, but nothing else. I would never take advantage-“

 

His rambling charmed her. He was the only man she knew who would seem so truly insulted and embarrassed by the notion he might have looked at her when she was unconscious. But that was the thing about him, he was too good. Hell, he'd have been too good for the old world, which meant he didn't fit at all in this new one. No matter how much she'd fought it over the months by his side, she knew she'd fallen in love with him.

 

Nora twisted and pulled him into a kiss, one hand on his cheek, the other on his thigh.

 

This time, he returned the kiss, slow and hesitant. His lips slid against hers, soft, his breath spilling against hers. His hand went to her side, fingers tight, like he wanted to pull her to him but was unsure it was welcome.

 

Nora slid her fingers over the stubble on his jaw. She’d always loved that stubble, and finally she got to touch it. She drug her nails through it.

 

A soft groan spilled from his lips before he pulled back. “Maybe we should slow down. This is new, and you were just injured.”

 

Nora twisted, a pull in her side. “I’m not going to be doing any gymnastics, or super mutant wrestling, but otherwise I think I’m okay. I mean, if you’re not interested, that’s okay, but I’ve wanted you since I met you.”

 

Danse reached up and ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “You have?”

 

“Yes. Absolutely. Do you have any idea how many times I about tripped over my feet watching you? Or how many times I took a walk because I needed to deal with, well, let’s just say you look really good when you’re doing push-ups.”

 

He laughed before he slid his hand behind her neck to pull her into another kiss, a quick one. “So we’re going to try this?”

 

“That depends. Are you going to get into this bed with me?”

 

“Yes, I am.” He set a hand on her shoulder to guide her back down, then crawled in beside her.

 

Nora rolled toward him and threw a leg over his hip, ready to finally have him.

 

Danse set his hand on her leg to pulled it off, then pressed a kiss to her head. “I am getting into the bed to sleep.”

 

“I don’t think I’m on board with that plan.”

 

He kissed her eyebrow, then over to her cheek, and finally to her lips. He had her moaning after a moment, his hand on her hip to keep her still.

 

When he finally pulled away, Nora tried to follow him. “Don’t tease me.”

 

He grinned, then settled into the bed, sliding an arm beneath the pillow. “You waited months, Nor. You can wait a little longer while we figure this out.”

 

“Nora.”

 

“What?”

 

“My real name; It’s Nora.”

 

His fingers rubbed over her back as he tucked her beneath her chin and against his chest. “I think I like Nor better, if you’re okay with that.”

 

She smiled as she slid her arm around him. “Well, that will depend on what you’re doing when you say my name, I guess.”

 

He chuckled, chest moving against her cheek. “Why do I feel like I’m in over my head with you?”

 

“Because you are.”

 

He released a sigh, relaxing into the mattress, the tension in him draining away as he held her closer. “Good.”

 


End file.
